Amnesty Accuses Myanmar's Military Of "Land Grab' In Rakhine State"

Blanca Howell |Monday, March 12, 2018

RM4 billion needed to feed, care for Rohingya in Bangladesh, says UN

In a new report, the worldwide human rights group claims, with the help of satellite images and witness accounts, Myanmar's military has been bulldozing the remains of torched villages to make way for new infrastructure in the Rakhine state, where the majority of the estimated 1 million Rohingya in Myanmar used to reside. Myanmar says it was responding to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in late August.

A harsh security response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents on August 25 sent members of the mostly stateless minority fleeing to Bangladesh and saw more than 350 villages destroyed by fire in western Myanmar's Rakhine state.

"In some instances there has been the destruction of existing homes".

The images are published as the United Nations said almost $1 billion (pounds 721 million) will be needed this year in global aid for Rohingya refugees living in overcrowded camps in southeastern Bangladesh.

The UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour last week said that "ethnic cleansing" against the Rohingya was continuing in Rakhine State through a "campaign of terror and forced starvation" intending to drive the remaining Rohingya population into Bangladesh.

The report follows previous accounts by Amnesty and other rights groups who have documented the demolition of Rohingya villages at the epicenter of recent violence, prompting concerns that evidence of human rights abuses are being concealed before they can be properly documented.

The new infrastructure mainly includes security bases.

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Similar building activity was also detected in Inn Din village, where Myanmar has admitted that its security forces took part in the killings of 10 Rohingya residents in September.

As well as rapid housing and road construction in the area, at least three new security facilities were under construction, the global human rights group said.

Amnesty said Myanmar's "reshaping" of the region where the Rohingya lived appeared to be created to accommodate more security forces and non-Rohingya villagers, and could deter refugees from agreeing to return.

Bangladesh and Myanmar in November signed an arrangement for the return of the Rohingya Muslims in two years. Myanmar officials have said villages were being bulldozed to make way for new homes for returning refugees.

"What we are seeing in Rakhine State is a land grab by the military on a dramatic scale".

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay says the bulldozing is mainly to prepare burned areas for resettlement and reconstruction. "As this region is behind in development, we are rebuilding systematically".

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